Mach was the first person to come to the realization that things act differently when they travel faster than the speed of sound. He wrote a paper on the subject of supersonic velocity in 1887 and predicted the existence of the cone shaped shock acoustical wave.

His best known books include:

Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung {The Science of Mechanics} (1883)

Die Analyse der Empfindungen {Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations} (1886)